tolkiens legendarium - What content is in the new Beren and Lúthien book compared to other published works?

Christopher Tolkien recently edited and released Beren and Lúthien, a new book highlighting one of the central stories of the entire mythology. I was expecting this to be a novelization similar in form to The Children of Hurin, but I've heard, as Wikipedia implies, that it is more like an annotated collection of the different versions and fragments of the story that JRRT had written over the years. We've seen multiple such accounts already, from The Lord of the Rings to The Book of Lost Tales.

So what does this new book actually provide? Is there any new content that was not previously published, or is this just a repackaged anthology?

Answer

Beren and Lúthien just collects different versions of the story and presents them in a way that shows the evolution of the tale from the earliest drafts to the latest. In the words of Christopher Tolkien in the preface,

this book does not offer a single page of original and unpublished work.

The book is just a nice way of having different versions together, with new commentary and explanations from Christopher, and the great illustrations from Alan Lee.

The way it was marketed is certainly confusing, and led many people to expect a complete story in more of a novel form.

Comments

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

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star wars - Why don't rebels take Stormtroopers' armor?

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aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

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